The Echo of Cries and Demons
by Shinigami 42-42-564
Summary: Full Sum Inside. As a war between China and Japan rages, two lovers are seperated when Chinese soldiers attack the town of Tomoeda. Now lost in an unknown part of China, not only is it a fight for survival, but also a fight to be reunited once again. SxS
1. Days of Debacle

**Summary:** This is a story of two teens who are madly in love and are just trying to survive hard times as a war between China and Japan rages. One night, after the celebration of Kinomoto Sakura's sixteenth birthday, Chinese Soldiers attack the town of Tomoeda and takes everyone hostage; those who didn't listen or tried to rebel were shot and killed. Taken across sea to an unknown region of China, Sakura and Syaoran are separated and are treated as slaves while being forced to work on farms and factories. Now, it becomes not only just a fight for survival, but also a fight to hopefully be reunited with one another and bring an end to a war that has already gone too far. Now, everything they do and everywhere they go, all they see and hear are the echoes of cries and demons.

**a/n:** Sorry it took so long to post this story. I've just been really depressed lately because my favorite manga, Chibi Vampire, just ended. I'm still sobbing because it was such a great read… damn… but oh well, here's my story. Please review after you're done!

**Dispute (Please read this!!): **This story is based on the movie "Jungle People" (translated because I don't know how to spell the actual title) and the movie is based upon a real event that happened just before the Vietnam War. The conflict was originally between Vietnam and the Hmong nomads, but I chose China and Japan in order to fit the characters Sakura and Syaoran. And also, so I'm not going too far with the conflict, my story is more of how two lovers (who aren't originally in the movie) are able to survive the event than it is on the actual thing. It's really hard for me to explain, but that's all I'm able to say now at the moment.

I understand that Japan and China have had their moments of rivalry and still respect one another as a nation. If anyone has any complaints or questions, please, I advise you to send me a private message, and if you are going to report me, please tell me so. I will understand why you are doing so, and will not stop you, or even try to stop you, from doing what you feel it right. This is the risk I run posting such a dramatic story (especially one including war) and I am well aware of everything.

**REMEMBER!!:** Any questions at ALL, please send in a review or private message. I'm really scared posting this story because I feel like I'm going to be violating some of this sites policy as well as having others seeing me as . . . heartless . . .

**Genre:** Romance, Drama, War, Tragedy**  
Disclaimer:** I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura in any way.**  
POV:** Third**  
Rating:** _**M**_ (for sexual—and possible nudity—description, crude humor, blood and violence, and war) That "M" is bolded, italic, and underlined for a reason, so take that and make sure you understand that when I say this story is "M", it is a big "M". (Especially as the story progresses)

**The Echo of Cries and Demons**  
By: Shinigami 42-42-564  
…**Chapter One…**  
"Days of Debacle"

* * *

"Sakura-chan, here." Fujitaka said. He handed her a small box wrapped in green and pink paper wrappings. He smiled brightly at his daughter, wishing that she wouldn't have grown up so old. But now, at the age of sixteen, he knows that she would be capable of controlling her own life for the most part; but after having a baby for such a long stretch as fifteen years, it was something he didn't want to let go.

"Arigatou, papa!" Sakura said, then noticed that her father wouldn't stop staring at her with such a childish look. "Papa, stop it, you're making me uncomfortable." Sakura jerked the box and quickly turned halfway around.

"I'm sorry, but you're just so pretty."

One would agree. Sakura had on a peach colored dress with a matching collar that felt almost uncomforting. She had a cherry blossom rose pinned through the right side of her hair, adding a sense of style along with her dress. The only thing that didn't seem to match on her was her emerald eyes that stood out like a Christmas ornament.

"Papa, it's not like I'm leaving or anything; you'll still see me every day, before and after school like always." Sakura said. She understand why her father felt the way he did; she understood that he feared her getting older, but he didn't seem to understand the fact that he was supposed to enjoy her now and not think about what will happen before it even happens.

It was just a father's love for his daughter.

"I know." He said. "But will you do me a favor?" Sakura nodded and waited for his request. "Don't stop calling me 'papa', you got it?"

Sakura nodded and gave Fujitaka a kiss on the cheek before bolting around the house to add her present with the other corner-full of presents she was given; she had planned to not open them until everyone was in the house, especially _him._

"Sakura-chan, smile!" a voice called from her side.

Sakura turned to see her best friend, Tomoyo standing with a camera in hand recording. Sakura did as told and smiled at the camera with a wave. The two shared a laugh as Tomoyo shut her camera off knowing that Sakura didn't like being captured in film or photo.

"Is he coming?" Tomoyo asked.

Sakura nodded with redness in her cheeks. "He told me that he would. But he said he wanted to buy something special for me, so he'll be a bit late."

"Poor Syaoran-kun," Tomoyo stated with a sigh at the end. Sakura stared as if she had just made a negative comment about him. "Doesn't know that all you want is _him_."

Sakura held her hands out and looked around. "T-Tomoyo-chan, please not so loud."

"You'd have to be pretty dense to not know though, I mean, you've known each other for several years."

"It's not _that _obvious is it? I mean—"

"There isn't anything going on between you two right?" Tomoyo said with a sly look. "Because if so, I want to capture you _first_!"

"F-first you say?" Sakura's eyes had flushed bright red. She could feel a stretch of blush instantly race across her face.

"But what if I already missed it? Oh no!" Now, to Sakura, Tomoyo just sounded sarcastic.

_She's in her little world again_ Sakura thought.

"Tomoyo-chan, can you help me with these plates?" Fujitaka asked. He held several glass plates in his hands. Anymore and they probably would have dropped.

"Hai, Kinomoto-san!" She yelled and darted away.

Sakura felt relief as her best friend finally left. Though she very well enjoyed Tomoyo's company, when she gets to her day dreams and wishes as she had just done, Sakura only wished she was able to ignore her.

As a loud commotion erupted from a small crowd nearby the main house door, Sakura made her towards them. She politely pushed in between people, trying to get to the door. When she finally made her way through, her nostrils flared and the hair on the back of her neck instantly stood up in place.

"You're late, Wei-san!" one party member called out to an old man, who waved with a smile at the time and with embarrassment.

"Well, well, it seems as if the parties been fun without us anyways." Wei stared down at the boy beside him.

The boy had on a dark brown leather jacket with several Chinese figures on the left side and his light brown hair and a body and face that looked much too old to be who he really was. The boy caught site of Sakura and quickly walked up to her as Wei closed the door behind him.

Sakura instantly felt heat whelming inside of her as the boy approached. She took long hard breathes and played with her thumbs until they were face to face. Sakura was surprised as their height difference was dramatic; Sakura was only up to his chin—if not shorter. The boy pulled out a small squared box, about three squared inches at the most, and showed it to her.

"Do you know where I can find this person?" the boy asked.

Sakura looked at the box that had labeled a familiar name on it. Sakura quickly nodded and said, "Follow me, she's in her room."

Pushing pass through the crowd again, Sakura eyed Tomoyo helping her father with dishes and setting up tables that spanned from one side of the house to the other. Sakura moved faster, hoping that Tomoyo wouldn't spot her. Once she passed her, Sakura led the boy into a dark hallway, and then turned to go up a small fleet of stairs. Once at the top, she turned to the nearest door and opened it.

As she walked into a small and dark room, Sakura waited for the boy to come in before slamming the door shut. She pushed him against a wall and pulled down on his collar so he was forced to bend down just slightly, and as fast as she slammed the door, she found herself kissing the boy on the lips.

It was a few seconds only before Sakura pulled back and started breathing hard. She rested her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around him tightly.

"You forgot to breathe again." The boy said with a little laugh after.

"It's only been a couple months, but it feels more like a couple years since I've seen you." She said in a soft tone. "Especially since you've grown so tall, Syaoran-kun."

The boy, Syaoran, gave a short laugh. "Well I'm sorry if my height disturbs you that much, I guess I'll leave then." He nudged his way towards the door but was pulled back as Sakura tightened her grip on him.

"_No!_" Sakura exclaimed in a playful childish voice. "_You're_ staying with _me_ for the night."

Syaoran stroked her hair and tipped her head up as he gave her another round on the lips. "Does anyone else know . . . you know . . . about us?"

Sakura gave a moment for herself to think, then said, "No—on second thought, I'm sure Tomoyo-chan might know, but you know how she's like."

Syaoran sighed in agreement. "Sakura-chan, I want them to know." Sakura instantly loosened her grip and looked up at him. "I don't want to live without telling them. It hurts me so much because I feel like I'm betraying them; going out with their daughter without any—"

"But, you don't know what their reaction will be, what if they disapprove of us?"

Syaoran shook his head with a smile. "They won't!"

"How do you know that?" Sakura argued back. "Papa see's you as a close family member and Onii-chan doesn't even like you."

"Your brother will have to deal with it, but I'm sure that Fujitaka-san won't disa—"

Before he was able to finish, Sakura had shoved her face in his chest and shook her head. "I don't want to take that chance." She said. "I don't want to have our relationship have a chance at being ruined."

Syaoran wrapped one arm around her back neck and used the other to stroke her hair again. He could hear the distress in her voice, and being gone from her for so long, Syaoran didn't want the person he loved most to feel such a thing, above all on her sixteenth birthday.

"If you believe that's what's best." Syaoran hugged her and bent over until her ears met his lips and he whispered, "But I promise you that _nothing _and _no one_ will ever have what it takes to break us apart; my arms, my legs, and even my head will be the ones that are torn from me before you ever are."

Sakura gave a small disgusted but friendly laugh. "And even if I'm torn apart from you, you'll never be torn apart from me."

"I guess you just proved that you're stronger than me after all!" Syaoran said.

The two shared a quiet laugh and enjoyed their stay confined in each other's arms. Feeling the warmth of his body was the one thing Sakura missed most about Syaoran, and just feeling his arms around her body made her feel safe and secure. But knowing that his family lived in China, it made her wonder if he would ever leave again. Tempted to know, she asked.

"Whether I'm supposed to go or not, I hate being apart from you just as much as you do from me."

"So . . . you won't be going back?" It took a long moment for Syaoran to answer, a long enough moment to the point where Sakura would make an assumption that he would be, but she was surprised as he shook his head. "Syaoran-kun, I know you're a busy person, traveling from Japan to China and back, especially during a war between the two, but I want you to do me a favor . . . will you?"

Syaoran tightened his grip on her and said, "Only if you're sure it'll make you happier."

"Share the pain you feel . . . with me."

Syaoran nodded. "Fine." He lied. He knew that no matter how much she wanted to feel the pain he felt, it was never worth hurting her; but then as he rethought, we questioned: Would lying to her hurt her even more? The only pain he felt was not being with her, but then as he mentioned earlier, he reminded himself that he, again, couldn't live comfortably without telling her father how much he cared for her.

As another minute passed, a voice yelled out for everyone to begin eating. Sakura wasn't sure if the voice was directed to her and he, her father, knew that she was up in her room, or he was really just telling anyone who was hungry.

"Best go eat." Syaoran said as he started to let go of her. "I'll go first to avoid any suspicion."

As he left, Sakura tugged on his hands and pulled him back just before he opened the door. He looked back with a questioned face. Even though it was night, and the room was just as dark as the color black, Syaoran could see in her emerald eyes that she had something already planned for the two of them. She smiled and quickly pulled him towards the window.

"What're we doing?" Syaoran asked half excited and half scared of being caught.

"Shh!" Sakura opened a window by her bed and then took off the screen. Slowly, she crawled out and onto a small ledge. She gestured Syaoran to follow and said, "Careful."

As he made his way out, Sakura pulled the curtains down from the inside to cover up the window and crawled on her dress, holding Syaoran's hand so he'd follow, and made her way near the edge on one side of the ledge. Sakura stepped down onto a garden gate and used it as a ladder until she reached the grass ground. She waited for Syaoran to drop before dragging him by the hands into thin woods just meters away from the back of her house.

Syaoran's heart pumped with intensity as he looked back at the house that held the party of the sixteen year old girl that was supposed to be in there, but instead outside dragging him into a place he didn't find familiar; but throughout the years, he's learned to trust her.

After they've passed the thin woods, Sakura led him up across a bright bridge that arched over a thin but reckless river. Green and yellow fireflies caught Syaoran's eyes as it resembled beauty and a sight that he wanted to see for longer, but was still being dragged.

Judging by how much he had ran, Syaoran could tell that they were at least a quarter mile away from her home; it now began to puzzle Syaoran even more to know where they were going. Before he knew it, they had stopped on a high peeked meadow with short grass. The moon shun with thousands of stars floating beside it, giving the spot they stood the brightest throughout the night.

Sakura tugged and sat down on a large folded out blanket. She reached for a picnic basket and set it on her lap. Sakura gave a smile and gestured Syaoran to sit next to her. Syaoran sighed and rose an eyebrow. He took her _command_ and sat behind her in a way so his legs were spread to the side of hers and he would be able to wrap his arms around her from behind.

Sakura opened the picnic basket lid and reached in and took out a small bento box. She unwrapped it and grabbed a chocolate dipped strawberry and reached behind her. She felt the lips of Syaoran envelop the tips of her fingers as she fed it to him.

"That was good." Syaoran commented after he swallowed.

"That's only the appetizer, wait and see what I have for main course!" Sakura said.

Syaoran licked his lips and after Sakura fed him another chocolate dipped strawberry, he wrapped both arms around her belly and asked, "Can I get an early dessert?"

Sakura smiled and said, "Yup!" She bent her head back as Syaoran came upon and gave her another share of the lips. As they broke apart, Sakura licked the corner of Syaoran's lips. "You left some chocolate there."

"Ah, well what do you know, so do you." Syaoran dove in for another round, but this time, he could feel her small tongue brush softly against his own; he started to feel different, but he knew that it was in a good way, as if their relationship had just gotten stronger.

**. : The Echo of Cries and Demons : .**

It was nearly an hour since they had abandoned the house, and because the party had started hours ago, the house started to empty, slowly, but surely. Syaoran helped Sakura back up onto the ledge by her window and into her room.

"I'll go into the front door, you know, to try to avoid unneeded attention." Syaoran said.

Sakura agreed and gave him a kiss tap to the nose and closed the window after placing the screen back on. She quickly jogged across her room and exited. Walking back down in the main area, she heard the doorbell ring and knew instantly that it was Syaoran. Quickly, she rushed to the door and opened it.

"Syaoran-kun your back!" She exclaimed as Syaoran walked in casually.

As Sakura closed the door behind him, Tomoyo had walked up to them with her eye peeping inside of the camera. "Funny, Syaoran-kun, I didn't see you leave ever since coming in before."

Syaoran scratched his chin and gave a quick glare at Sakura, only to see her smiling with the same troubled look he had. "I had to quickly check on something." Was his best excuse. "Well, I'm going to say 'hi' to Fujitaka-san then." Syaoran quickly rushed through the smaller crowd and into the kitchen area.

Sakura stared with happiness in her eyes, but it all flushed away as the sly face of Tomoyo popped in front of her again, grinning. "You know," she started. "I haven't seen _you_ for the past hour too!" Sakura froze instantly. She tried staring away, but it would only make her look even more weakened to the likes of Tomoyo. "You two weren't doing anything together now were you?"

Sakura nervously shook her head. "O-of course not! Why would you—"

"Because I want to catch your first moment!" Tomoyo said, breaking Sakura's moment of speech. "So don't you let me down Sakura-chan!"

Sakura gave a few low laughs. _I'm sorry Tomoyo-chan_ she thought._ But I already have!_

**. : The Echo of Cries and Demons : .**

Another hour past and it was almost midnight. Everyone who had attended the birthday celebration left. It was only Wei, Syaoran, Tomoyo, and Fujitaka, and Touya who were left in the house. Pieces cakes were still left on the table and bits and pieces of rice from onigiri's were left on plates. Overall, Fujitaka was satisfied that everyone had eaten nearly everything he had cooked; all was well.

After rinsing the last dish he was given to do, Tomoyo packed her camera in a case and swung herself into a light jacket. "Well then, happy birthday Sakura-chan, and goodnight everyone!" She yelled across the room and left.

Syaoran and Sakura waved side-by-side until they felt that her presence was gone, then took their moment to smile at one another. They were broken up as Touya shoved piles of plates into Syaoran's arms. Being unprepared, he almost dropped the top plate, but managed to keep his balance and walk towards the sink as Touya gave him a push.

Sakura only sighed as she knew that her big brother didn't enjoy seeing her with Syaoran so much. She made her way toward the large trash bin and started wrapping it up. As she pulled it out of its bin, a loud horrid scream echoed from outside. It wasn't the cry itself that scared Sakura most, but the fact that she knew who's scream it was; Tomoyo's.

"Daidouji-san?" Syaoran muttered and quickly walked across the room and towards the door. Quickly, he opened it and suddenly felt a large boot thrust against his stomach and pushed him back several feet back into the house.

"Syaoran-kun!" Sakura screamed. Shortly after, men in dark strange clothing started to horde into the room. Each wore a thick army helmet and held rifles in their hands. On the right side of their chest was a printed in flag of China; they were Chinese soldiers.

One of them grabbed Syaoran by the collar and lifted him to his feet, but only to push him against the wall face first and shove the barrel of his rifle into the back of his skull. Another grabbed Sakura by the shoulder and pushed her against the wall next to Syaoran, this one pressed his rifle against her back.

"Sakura-chan!" She heard Syaoran scream. "Are you alright?"

"W-what's going on Syaoran-kun?" Sakura screamed. Fear quickly surrounded her like no other emotion had ever done. Everything moved so sudden that she thought it was all just a dream that she wanted to wake up from.

"Shut up!" her soldier said and pressed the rifle into her spine; Sakura could feel the Chinese soldier put a hand on his trigger.

Moments later, Fujitaka, Wei and Touya were pushed out from the kitchen and were tripped to the floor. Hands were behind their back and rifles were pointed in the back of their skulls just like Syaoran's men had his.

"Papa! Onii-chan!" Sakura screamed. The man pushed Sakura's head against the wall with a gloved hand. Sakura screamed in pain as she could feel the wall starting to crack from the amount of force the soldier was giving her.

"Sakura-chan!" Fujitaka yelled.

As the soldier eased up on Sakura, another man came in, but this one had no rifle, only a pistol strapped to his side and he wore thinner layers of clothing. He took a quick look around as two soldiers rushed up to him.

"The house is clear Captain." One of the men said.

"Alright." Said the man with the pistol, the captain. "Take these Japs outside!"

Syaoran was the first to be rushed out, but as he passed the Chinese captain, the man gave Syaoran an odd look, half telling him to 'don't do anything stupid' and other half telling him 'what the hell are you doing here?' It didn't surprise Syaoran because he himself was Chinese as well.

When Syaoran was dragged outside, he couldn't believe his eyes. A whole line of people, even those from the party that had just ended moments ago, were lined up in single file with Chinese soldiers bordering them. Instantly, he saw Tomoyo with extreme fear in her eyes kneeling down on the floor. To his opposite side further down the street, he saw people being force out of their homes and into separate lines just like their own.

As the soldier pushed Syaoran into Tomoyo's crowd, Syaoran quickly rushed over and knelt by her. "What's happening, Syaoran-kun?" Tomoyo asked, clutching his arm.

"I don't know." Syaoran muttered.

When Sakura and the others were pushed into their pile, Syaoran quickly caught Sakura and held her in place so she wouldn't have to take a hard fall.

"Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo screamed. "Are you alright?"

"Tomoyo-chan?" Sakura quickly crawled and gave Tomoyo a quickl hug, then pulled back. "What's happening?"

Tomoyo shrugged. "No one knows."

As a group of soldiers filed themselves in front of them, Wei, Touya and Fujitaka were shoved onto the ground right next to Sakura. Sakura crawled up to her father and brother. When the line of soldiers split evenly to the side, a man, or what Syaoran thought was a monster, emerged from behind them and stood with a large smile as his eyes wandered around at the group of people.

Not only was the man immensely buff, but extremely tall as well—nearly seven foot tall if not more, but for sure, nowhere under. Instead of wearing a thick helmet like the other soldiers did, he wore a normal military vase with the Chinese flag imprinted on the front. His shoulders were broad and wide and his arms were not of human flesh, but robotic instead. As Syaoran glared up at his face, the top right corner of his face, from nose past the eyes, was nothing but silver metal, and his right eye shun like a red light.

_Is this guy a monster?_ Syaoran thought, _half human and half robot? Impossible!_

The man raised one of his robotic arms and shouted, "_Silence!_" The captive crowd behind Syaoran bellowed in fear as his voice soared throughout the night sky. He didn't even sound human to Syaoran's ears, and he could tell that everyone would have agreed. When the man was satisfied with the easing noise, he told everyone stand up. When only a handful of people did as told, he shouted, "Hurry!"

His loud monstrous voice gave Syaoran a shock throughout his whole body. Instantly, everyone stood with a short scream. He stared over at Wei, with his old beat up body; he had trouble standing, but eventually, did so. It gave Syaoran a small bit of relief because he didn't want to imagine what would have happened if Wei wasn't able to stand.

There was complete silence in their group of captives, but that was only because he monstrous man snapped his fingers, and the lined men behind him took that as an order to point their rifles at everyone; finger on the trigger if waiting for another snap of the finger to squeeze.

"Good!" the monstrous man shouted. "I guess talking won't be enough to convince you that this is actually happening." His voice was deep with the Chinese accent. "Now, I'm sure that your all wondering what's going on; why you're here instead of in your homes and such . . . well you're out of luck because no one's going to tell you, so I'll ask you to please toss that question out of your heads."

"That's nonsense!" a man shouted. Syaoran quickly jerked his head and couldn't believe that it wasn't just any man who shouted that, but Fujitaka himself. He could tell that Sakura thought the same. "You can't do this to us without giving us a reason!"

The monstrous man reached out with his robotic arms and grabbed Fujitaka by the head and dragged him closer. Sakura took a step forward, but stopped in fear.

"You seem to be forgetting sir; we're in a war . . . anything can go without reason!"

A loud _bang_ roared through the air. Blood shot out from the side of Fujitaka's head. His pupils dilated and as the man loosed his grip, Fujitaka's body fell to the ground. Blood rivered down as his head bounced once on the hard ground.

"_Papa!_" Sakura screamed at the top of her longs. She sprinted towards her dead father, but Syaoran quickly grabbed her by the arms and held her tightly in his own. She struggled to get free, but Syaoran held her tight, not wanting her to do anything that would cause her to be next. "_Papa!_" She screamed again. Syaoran moved one hand and pressed her head against his chest, half to get her to quiet down and half so she wouldn't have to see the dreadful ending of her beloved father; one who had taken care of her since birth. He knew that the force he pressed on her was painful, but he feared the worst if he loosened up. Syaoran could feel the tears she let out soak the spot on his chest and her mouth motioning as she continued to call out for her father. He wanted to let out his own cry as well, but felt more anger than sorrow; both still immensely high emotionally on him.

The huge man stared off to his side just in time to see the captain put his pistol back onto his side. "Oh, Captain!" he said. "You didn't have to do that to the poor guy; I _was_ going to let him go."

The Captain walked up to the monstrous man and crossed his arms. "Like you said, General Hoang, talking won't be enough."

The two shared a quick laugh and the general, Hoang, quickly eyed Syaoran and Sakura. With a smile, he walked up to the two and bent now enough so he could stick his nose in front of Syaoran's face. His eyes rolled down to Sakura, who still cried desperately in his arms.

"Oh, was that your daddy Captain Feng just killed?"

Sakura screamed into the chest of Syaoran as she heard those words. Syaoran shifted his body so Sakura was farthest away as possible from the general, but still kept a tight and painful bind on her.

"Get away from her, you _creep_!" Syaoran shouted. He wondered if he would now be the next to get killed.

Hoang cocked his head to the side as his attention now was on Syaoran. His eyes squinted as if he was examining his face, and Syaoran was sure that it was just that.

"Captain—"

"Yes I know." Feng said, reading his general's mind. "He's Chinese . . . as the old guy is as well. Should we dispose of them?"

As Sakura heard those words, Syaoran could feel her wrapping her arms around his waist, pulling him hard against her as if to never let go.

The general shook his head. "No." He moved back to where Feng stood and shouted to everyone, "Let's hope that the death count _stays_ at one! Anyone who tries to rebel or run away will be shot and killed! And if you get away, every hour you're spent missing, someone else dies for you!" As he started making his way past the lined soldiers, he turned over his shoulder and said, "Captain, make a head count . . . and as for the _traitors, _knock'em out for now."

Feng nodded, and as his general left down the road, he gestured two of the Chinese soldier with a hand across his neck. One went Wei and forced him around, only to strike the butt of the rifle on the back of Wei's head, _knocking _him unconscious and onto the floor.

"Wei!" Syaoran called out, but only a split second later, felt a hard beat to his own head. Everything around went black, and the only thing he heard before being completely _out_, was his name being screamed out by the one person he was just holding.

"_Syaoran-kun!_"

* * *

**I certainly hope you enjoyed this because I've spent a lot of time with this chapter especially.  
Well, this chapter was just over 10 pages long...  
Please review. First chapter's always important, especially when it comes to reviews!  
Tell me how ya liked it, or hated it. if it made you feel a certain way, questions, anything at all!**

**Also, Chapter 3 of "Mujou no Sakura" will be updated ASAP (probably this weekend).**


	2. The Flares of Sentiment

**Summary:** This is a story of two teens who are madly in love and are just trying to survive hard times as a war between China and Japan rages. One night, after the celebration of Kinomoto Sakura's sixteenth birthday, Chinese Soldiers attack the town of Tomoeda and takes everyone hostage; those who didn't listen or tried to rebel were shot and killed. Taken across sea to an unknown region of China, Sakura and Syaoran are separated and are treated as slaves while being forced to work on farms and factories. Now, it becomes not only just a fight for survival, but also a fight to hopefully be reunited with one another and bring an end to a war that has already gone too far. Now, everything they do and everywhere they go, all they see and hear are the echoes of cries and demons.

a/n: *sniff* for some reason this chapter took so long to update even though it's a bit shorter than the first... but oh well, please enjoy. And for some reason, my rating system is messed up. It changed from "M" to "T" and it won't give me the option to switch back. So even though it says "T", please know that it's really "M". Anyways, until I fix that, enjoy! Chapter one has been updated for fixes.

**Genre:** Romance, Drama, War, Tragedy**  
Disclaimer:** I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura in any way.**  
POV:** Third**  
Rating:** _**M** _ (for sexual—and possible nudity—description, crude humor, blood and violence, and war)

**The Echo of Cries and Demons**  
By: Shinigami 42-42-564  
…**Chapter Two…**  
"The Flares of Sentiment"

* * *

He could feel his body rock up and down and eventually side to side. He could feel the food he had eaten from the party start to make its way up his throat. The taste of rice, fish, and others that tasted good started to give him a disgusted thought. Now with the motion on his body and the food that inched its way through his throat, Syaoran had no choice but to open his mouth and let it out.

The vomit came out in mixed colors of everything he had eaten. The rice was covered in the color of green; the colored jelly he had as dessert. As he barfed, Syaoran quickly held the back of his head and quietly screamed to himself. Suddenly, a slick shot of pain traveled from the back of his head towards his eyes. As he forced them open, he saw his own digestives laying on a pack of hay.

For a moment, he had almost forgotten what had happened, but as a small voice called out to him, everything flashed back into him like a rewound tape.

"Syaoran-kun!" When his eyes focused, Sakura threw herself on top of him. The force of her body had almost made vomit once more, but he swallowed what had came up, feeling the burn of his stomach acid as they went back down. "Oh Syaoran-kun, are you hurt?" She cupped his cheeks with her hands and pulled him closer.

After several blinks, and another quick moment to come back to reality, Syaoran jerked forward and wrapped his arms around the waist of Sakura, pulling her close.

"I'm fine." He said. "I'm fine." Reassuring her, then took a look around. The floor was covered in hay; with some spots nothing but wood, and his surrounding was dark. People grouped in fear on the sides of walls or near the middle of the area. "Where are we?"

Sakura shrugged. "All I know is that they brought everyone across to the East Sea. They forced us into these ships and now . . ." she trailed off, pondering on what to say next.

"We're going to China . . . most likely." Turning around, he saw Wei laying down on a pack of hay motionless. The way his body was, Syaoran couldn't tell if he was still unconscious, sleeping, or even dead. With the best of his efforts, he made his way over to the old man and knelt next to him. "Wei . . .?"

"H-he'll be fine." A man only a few feet away from them said. "He's breathing well, and is just sleeping at the moment."

Relieved to hear those words, Syaoran bought his attention back to Sakura, but as he turned, she had disappeared from her recent spot. Ignoring her sudden disappearance for a moment, knowing she couldn't have gone far at all, Syaoran stared at the feared faces around him. Children, women, old seniors, and even babies were packed in bunches, half praying, the other half crying.

Walking up to a crying boy, not even at the age of eight, he crouched down and patted him on the head, hoping that it would give him more comfort. But the boy swung his arms away and quickly ran into the arms of a woman; the women gave Syaoran a nasty look, as if thinking that Syaoran was against them as well. Now, it seemed as if they were pinning his own nationality against him.

_They have the right to act this way,_ thought Syaoran. _I guess . . ._

Getting back up, Syaoran looked for Sakura. He found her in arms of her brother Touya. Sorrow, pain, and any other negative feelings one would be able to feel had lifted upon the two. He approached them. Seeing him, Sakura pushed into Syaoran's arms, then let go, held her hands low and took a step back as her brother and Syaoran stared at each other.

The two shared a game of relentless stares. After a long pause, Syaoran cleared his throat and said, "Everyone's scared."

Touya stared at the dim question. "And you think _we're_ not?"

Syaoran shook his head. "Sorry, I'm just speechless right now. I really want to help, but . . ." he trailed off.

"I think everyone wants to _help,_ but what much can we do?"

Syaoran lowered his eyes. In someone else's view, Syaoran would be calm and relaxed more than anyone else, but really, Syaoran found himself just as scared and worried—if not more.

"I just—I just feel like we should do something to get out."

Touya forced a small grin. "Like what, kid? Huh? Like _what?_ " he shouted. "What do _you_ expect _us_ —nevertheless _me_ —to do?" As Touya's voice had uproared, wanders of eyes had peered upon them from every direction. With another second passing, Touya reached for Syaoran's neck collar and pulled him close. "My father just got his head blow off! And you expect me to do something when, clearly, I can't?"

Sakura screamed behind them as she saw such negative image. "Stop it!" she cried. She pulled the two apart and dug her face into her brothers chest. "Please stop it." She pleaded with hesitation in her voice and break ups from hurdles of tears.

After hearing her cries, Syaoran stepped back and kept his mouth shut. He saw that fear easily took over Sakura like darkness after a light has been burnt out. Syaoran tried to reach for her, but pulled back before anyone would have noticed.

"I—I'm sorry." Said Syaoran. "I'm just as scared as anyone here."

"I know, I know." Implied Touya; embracing his little sister.

Giving another quick stare around, Syaoran had just noticed someone else he knew was missing. "Where's Daidouji-san?"

After a long pause, Touya finally said, "On another ship."

Syaoran shook his head and cursed slowly to himself. His sentiments flared, and heat traveled within his bloodstreams making him warmer than he was comfortable with.

A light shun out from behind him as a wide door on one of the ships walls had opened. Eyes from everyone had turned into the one direction. Sakura stepped back behind Touya, as did other infants and fearful captives. Syaoran wanted to hide behind someone himself as well, but he didn't; and he didn't know if it was bravery or fear that made him decide.

Two Chinese soldiers marched in with rifles in their hands. They looked around as if expecting someone to attack, but as Syaoran could see in everyone's eyes that everyone was too scared to even think of the idea.

As the soldiers stepped aside, a man walked it. A hazy picture came into Syaoran's mind as he found the person familiar. Then when it hit him, he remembered all too well: the captain, Feng. He stared around with his hands to the side, searching for someone. When his eyes had fixed on Syaoran, he smiled.

Gesturing to the soldiers, he made his way through the dark room of scared people, watching every eye that peered upon him. When the soldiers approached Syaoran, they eyed him carefully as Syaoran did them.

"Young sire," Feng said when he came toe to toe with Syaoran. "Would you mind coming to have a cup of tea with me?"

Syaoran stared away for a moment, giving thought about the apprehensive offer. "And if I refuse?" he said.

Feng sighed softly as if he had just been relieved from remorse. With a snap of a finger, the two guards that stood with him shifted their rifles in hand and pointed the end of the barrel towards Syaoran. As Syaoran gazed, he couldn't see down the barrel. That was when he figured that the rifles weren't pointing at _him_ , but Sakura and Touya behind him.

"Do you really insist that I do _another_ demonstration?"

Syaoran grinded his teeth. Unwillingly, he took a step forward, but not before a shot was fired. The roars of the rifles screeched across the dark mellow room. Syaoran's heart pumped at rapid speed, his eyes crossed and his mind freaked as fear arose once again. Quickly, he turned around to where the rifles had pointed. Two bullet size holes had been pierced by the foot of Touya. He clutched Sakura in his arms as she did him and pushed back away.

"S-Sakura-chan . . ." Syaoran hesitated to even make another move.

Feng whispered something in Chinese. Even though it was towards his two soldiers, Syaoran knew that it was directed towards him. "You _missed._ " Was what he said. Syaoran wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or not, but he didn't want to take another chance.

Quickly, he took his step forward but stopped and stared at Feng as if to order him through the eyes for him men to retreat. Feng only smiled as he read Syaoran perfectly.

"This will only take . . . a few minutes." He said, and then turned. Syaoran followed with the riflemen trailing close behind him.

**. : The Echo of Cries and Demons : .**

After trailing through skinny corridors and several unfriendly resting soldiers, Syaoran was shoved into a spacious room. A small dinner table was set with eight candles in the center. The room was dark and even though there were dim lights in the ceiling, it was as if the candles were the only things brightening the room.

As Feng sat down on one side of the table, he offered a seat on the opposite side. Syaoran took it and sat down; arms down on his lap. He was in a nervous wreck, not knowing what to expect, for all he knew, his life could end any second.

After a moment of calm, a solder came from the side and poured tea into a small teacup in front of him. Syaoran didn't thank him, but it seemed as if neither the soldier nor Feng had expected one. Syaoran cautiously examined the tea wondering if it may have been poisoned. But once he stared into the eyes of the Chinese captain, he, for some reason, noted to himself that it was safe to drink. He took a small but quick sip.

"What do you want?" exclaimed Syaoran after his nip.

Feng had swallowed his cup of tea in one or two gulps, and then motioned for his soldier to give him a refill. After the task had been fulfilled, he took one small sip and rested his elbows onto the table.

"How old are you, young sire?" he asked.

"Seventeen." Syaoran answered hesitantly at the sudden question.

Feng gave what seemed to be a forced smile in Syaoran's eyes. "The war between us and Japan have been going on for quite a while—"

"Yes I know—"

"Three years—it will be—in a few weeks."

Action had been taken before Syaoran was able to even think. Before he was able to even notice what had happened, he had already taken his small cup of tea and plastered it into the face of the Chinese captain.

"What do you want, what have you don't with Tomoeda and why'd you called me here?" Syaoran had made a demanding voice for every one of his questions.

Feng took a handkerchief and wiped his face of the tea. Syaoran expected an angry rampage, but was surprised as he folded his handkerchief and set it on the table. Syaoran could feel the soldiers moving up to him, wanting to restrain him, but Feng gestured them back.

"I understand, young sire, that you are scared and confused. It all happened so unexpectedly and fast . . . just as if it was all a dream that will die away sooner or later."

"What's your point?"

"During the war, the Chinese and Japanese have been separated by their own will. Communication has been broken up as if . . . as if they were enemies to one another."

"Because you guys waged war on Japan, of _course_ people would hate the other race."

"_You_ guys? Don't you mean _we_ ?" Feng corrected. Syaoran didn't want any part of it, but because the matter was on race, he was forced to accept his correction. "Either way, we're both wrong in _both_ cases." Syaoran widened his eyes. "You see, the Chinese aren't racist towards the Japanese and the Japanese aren't racist towads the Chinese, they just fear getting caught on the wrong end, so they stay back in their own country, and it isn't _us_ who are at war, it is our government. There is clearly nothing I could have done. I—as well as any other military soldier—am just following orders. So really, all of us are innocent."

Syaoran slammed his palms on the table, shaking it like a small earthquake. "Was it your _order_ to kill Fujitaka-san? You actually feel innocent about that?" Syaoran shouted at the top of his lungs. He was ready for the soldiers behind him to tackle him down to the ground, but as they didn't, he stared hard into Feng's eyes.

"My order was to aid General Hoang in the taking of Tomoeda and inferiate the people of that town by any means necessary."

"_Bullshit!_ " Syaoran exclaimed. "You didn't even give them a chance, and if you did, it clearly wasn't a very fair one."

"You truly believe _fairness_ is a part of war?"

"I thought it was the government who was at war, not _us_ ." Syaoran took his seat, but slid back his chair, readying to leave. "I'm never going to forgive you for killing him."

Feng grinded his teeth. He hadn't estimated Syaoran not even once, but he surely didn't like the way Syaoran had outsmarted him in their conversation. Clearing his throat, he warded away from his vocal defeat by saying:

"We're getting a bit off the subject I wanted here. I didn't necessarily call _you_ personally, the old man would have done well as well but—"

"Because we're Chinese."

Feng nodded. "It struck me because you two, of all people, are the first ones I've seen in the opposing country. Ever since the war, fearing to be captive by their own countries, citizens moved back to their rightful country—as I've said before." After a short nod from Syaoran, Feng continued. "May I ask: _why_ were you in Japan?"

"I was just returning home," was Syaoran's answer.

"By _home_ , you mean Ch—"

"That's _right_ , Tomoeda, Japan." Interrupted Syaoran. Tomoeda wasn't Syaoran's original home, but he had grown up long enough there to call it his home. Syaoran was glad of it as well because not only did he enjoy it most there, he had found the most happiness in his life and someone he wanted to keep for the remainder of his life. "Whether Wei and I are Chinese or not, it doesn't change the way we feel about Japan."

"You're a strong young sire . . . what is your name?"

"Syaoran."

"Syaoran . . ." Feng repeated. "I'll be sure to remember that."

With a gesture, the soldiers came to the side of Syaoran. Syaoran took the gesture, assuming that it was time he had left, and stood from his chair. He gave one last serious look into Feng's eyes and them departed from the room—the soldiers following closely behind him.

On his way back to where he had woken up, Syaoran questioned his random conversation. He had expected to be physically beaten, to be criticized for being on the _wrong side_ , but when it all ended, he found it odd and almost uncomforting that the whole conversation was just because he was in Japan, because he was Chinese. Syaoran did acknowledge the fact that ever since the war, the Chinese stayed in China while the Japanese stayed in Japan. It didn't surprise him that he stuck out and that it was a surprise to them, the Chinese soldiers, as well: a Chinese person in Japan; he and Wei were just lucky to have friends in Tomoeda.

**. : The Echo of Cries and Demons : .**

When Syaoran opened the doors to the room of captives, eyes frightenly stared towards his direction. He looked upon the eyes and made his way back towards Sakura. Once approached, Sakura pushed her body up against his.

"Are you hurt?" she asked. Syaoran shook his head. "Did they do anything to you?"

"No, I'm fine." Syaoran assured slowly releasing himself from her arms. "We just had a meaningless talk, that's all."

"Are you sure?" asked Touya. "Nothing you'd wanna spill on us?"

"Believe me, nothing at all happened." After not hearing another word, Syaoran turned to see Wei in a sitting position. With eyes widened, he sprinted and dropped to his knees in front of Wei. "How are you doing?"

With a quick shake of the head he said, "Could have been better." With a quick whirl around the room, he added, "Where are we?"

"It seems we're being taken across back to China," replied Syaoran.

"China! Why?"

"I don't know."

After feeling relieved that Wei was now, or seemed to be so, okay, Syaoran and the others sat in silence for what Syaoran was able to count to be practically an hour and a half. During that time, Syaoran tried to fall asleep, but the rocking of the ship woke him up every few minutes.

As he looked at the other captives, he could easily tell that they tried to sleep as well; some were successful, and others failed as miserable as he.

Syaoran saw Touya trying to sleep on a stack of hay, back leaning up against a bushel. Not seeing Sakura in sight, he took the opportunity and crawled his way up to him.

"Hey . . . I'm really sorry about Fujitaka-san."

Touya slowly opened his eyes and took one short stare at Syaoran. He then leaned his head back and said, "Don't be. As much as I hate to say it, it was him himself that got himself killed. Damn guy just couldn't keep his mouth shut."

"You shouldn't say that about your dad like that."

"Believe me, I don't want to, but it's true—you know it's true! You saw it happened just as well!"

Glowering, Syaoran wanted to deny everything that Touya had said, but at the same time, he was right. Searching, he found Sakura standing alone with her back against the ships wall and arms held behind her back. She had one foot back against the wall in support and stared down at the floor.

Syaoran made his way up to her, and as he got closer, he saw tears that wept on her face. Syaoran opened his mouth in attempt to say something, but Sakura had acted first.

"I told him . . . that he'd still see me everyday even though I'm getting much older now . . . when I was younger, he promised me that he'd always be there for me. Where is he now, Syaoran-kun? Where is he?"

Syaoran reached and cupped Sakura around the neck, pulling her in from the wall. He didn't know what do to, or what to say. He didn't know how he would be able to relinquish the feelings for her lost father.

"When the soldiers came in and took you with them, I was scared . . . I thought you'd never come back again." Sakura took a hard grip on Syaoran, a grip that would seem to never be let go until her arms were forced to come detached from her shoulders.

"I told you already," Syaoran whispered into her ears. "Nothing will _ever_ tear us apart. I promise you, Sakura-chan, when we get out of this, we'll live a happy life, and after we finish school . . ."

Syaoran had trailed off. His eyes started to water with glee as his heart and mind was nothing but fear and sorrow. His heart had pumped immensely fast as he went and kissed Sakura on the lips. He let go to see her eyes shine with tears.

"I want to marry you."

Sakura froze as if the words had struck her dead. After a short pause, she slowly stared up until her emerald eyes met his. Butterflies had lifted in her stomach, and in such a day of depression, she couldn't believe what she had heard. To her, it was as if her fantasy dream had come true and the happiest feelings in her had arisen.

"You do?" as a teardrop of joy fell, a smile crossed her face.

"I've known you for almost my entire life; I wouldn't dare try to live apart from you . . . ever. That's why I wanted everyone to know about us." Syaoran dug into his pocket and pulled out the small box that he had shown Sakura during her party. He opened it and pulled out a gold necklace. A heart hung down from it and inside the heart was a carved _SS_ in the middle.

Syaoran clipped the necklace on and swung it towards the front so the heart hung down her chest. Sakura stared at it with a smile as if it were the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She pushed up on her tiptoes and reached and gave Syaoran a tap on the lips. She pushed her body tighter against his and shoved her face in his chest.

"Promise me that we'll get out of here, promise me that I'll have you by my side once this war is over, and promise me that we _will_ get married, have kids and a happy life."

This wasn't a questionable answer for Syaoran, "I promise." It wasn't even near too much to ask for.

Holding each other, they sat down on a pile of hair and closed their eyes side by side. It was the first time Syaoran had actually felt comfortable and was able to fall asleep. He combed the hair of Sakura with his hands and held her tightly around the neck. He used his chest to support her like a pillow and leaned back just enough to give her comfort.

"I promise." He said in his sleep. He repeated the words over again until his mouth was worn out. When his mouth was warned out, he then started to think it, and when his mind exhausted, he had fallen asleep.

**. : The Echo of Cries and Demons : .**

When Syaoran felt movement around him, he thought that it was just Sakura wriggling in his arms. But once the sound of gunfire screamed into his ears, his eyes flashed open and he had figured out what the movement was: ship docking.

They had stopped.

* * *

_Again, sorry it took so long. But I hoped you enjoyed it. Please review._


	3. Miles in the Heart of Fear and Loss

**Summary:** This is a story of two teens who are madly in love and are just trying to survive hard times as a war between China and Japan rages. One night, after the celebration of Kinomoto Sakura's sixteenth birthday, Chinese Soldiers attack the town of Tomoeda and takes everyone hostage; those who didn't listen or tried to rebel were shot and killed. Taken across sea to an unknown region of China, Sakura and Syaoran are separated and are treated as slaves while being forced to work on farms and factories. Now, it becomes not only just a fight for survival, but also a fight to hopefully be reunited with one another and bring an end to a war that has already gone too far. Now, everything they do and everywhere they go, all they see and hear are the echoes of cries and demons.

**a/n:** I've had a lot of e-mails wondering why I'm not updating and if I've just comepletely stop writing, but I really am not. Because school is nearing its end with like . . . 20 or so school days left, I've been getting lots of homework, projects and stuff. I'm also in baseball so that's been a pick part of why I haven't been able to do much. And also there was prom which took me loads of days to get ready for. So, because of these "hurry up" requests, this chapter didn't really get to the length I wanted it to be. Instead of around 12 pages like I wanted, it's around 7-8 only. So a bit shorter than the last two chapters, but I hope you'll enjoy.

Also, Meru, the author of "Mujou no Sakura" too is putting a small halt on her own story. She's home schooled because she just arrived from Japan a few months ago so her tutor is really pushing her hard and so . . . yeah . . . last quarter of my school is very hard and serious. And also, I'll be writing "Mujou no Sakura"'s next chapter just to make an attempt at speeding her story along as well. She's told me what she's wanted, so I'll try my best to write what I can into her story.

Well! Enjoy! I accidentally reposted this one because I accidentally deleated it trying to make some edits, so sorry if fans got an extra E-mail.

**Genre:** Romance, Drama, War, Tragedy**  
Disclaimer:** I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura in any way.**  
POV:** Third**  
Rating:** _**M** _(for sexual—and possible nudity—description, crude humor, blood and violence, and war) That "M" is bolded, italic, and underlined for a reason, so take that and make sure you understand that when I say this story is "M", it is a big "M". (Especially as the story progresses)

**The Echo of Cries and Demons**  
By: Shinigami 42-42-564  
…**Chapter Three…**  
"Miles in the Heart of Fear and Loss"

* * *

Syaoran shook Sakura up. She bobbed her sleepy head and blinked as she tried to recover from a surprisingly comfort nap. She pushed on the chest of Syaoran and got to her knees. Her weary eyes shifted as commotion started to flow through the area. As her eyes made it to Syaoran's, his gaze was stern towards one direction.

"What happened?" she asked.

Hesitation broke in as he swallowed. "We stopped." As he got up, Touya and Wei marched to his side.

"Hey," Touya started. "Whatever happens, don't do anything stupid."

Syaoran found that request a little hard to oppose. He wouldn't want to risk anything anymore. Already within the past few hours, he had almost lost another someone special to him. The threat of Feng doing what he did before he had followed him into the mysterious room shocked his heart so much that if the bullets would have hit someone, he would have attacked with the fists he had.

When light emerged from one side of the ships walls, everyone stared in the direction as if light was such a unique thing; something they had never seen for a very long time—if not ever. Quickly, but painfully, Syaoran's eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness as he squinted with one hand over his head. He used his body to shield Sakura from the light as did Touya and Wei.

After his visions adjustment, Syaoran saw the night sky for the first time since being knocked out. The stars shun brightly as they did every night for him; he searched for the moon but it was elsewhere out of his view. As the night did seem to express a silent day, Syaoran had just remembered that it was only night hours ago. The dark sky he saw was just the morning sky before the sun was able to peek out of its horizon.

The night sky was blocked as Feng stood in between the door ways. He smiled gently with his arms crossed and two soldiers beside him.

"Welcome to heaven!" he exclaimed. "What part? I won't say." He said it as if he was just _joking_ around, but Syaoran knew better.

"The man speaks like we're his toys." Wei commented quietly.

Syaoran agreed, though he didn't show it in any way, only stared at Feng with eyes as if they had another alone time, but this time, it would be to kill.

"Now!" Feng continued, "Listen so I don't have to _demonstrate_ anything. When you guys get off this ship, march your ass down to the center of our little peninsula and stay put. Anyone trying to get away _will_ be shot and if you're lucky . . . you might just die."

Glaring at the grueling words that spoke from his lips, Syaoran clenched his fists. He could see Feng give him a smirk and then turned and left his soldiers. The two soldiers started to yell orders and give commands, they even pointed their rifles at others—little ones and elders—anything to get the convoy moving at a fast paste.

Just as people had started to move fast enough for the soldiers to keep their mouths shut, a man fell to his knees and struggled to get himself up. Seeing this, one of the soldiers came up to him and smashed the butt of his rifles against his back. "Get up!" he yelled. The man did once, but before he was able to get to his feet, the soldier hit him again with the butt of the rifle. "Get up!"

Before the soldier could give another blow to the helpless person, Syaoran pushed the soldier with the best of his force—which dropped the soldier to the ground—and helped the man up with an arm over his shoulder.

"Drop dead!" Syaoran shouted towards the soldier.

The soldier got up and quickly pointed the rifle at Syaoran with fury. "You wanna die kid?" he shouted back. He held a finger on the trigger but the other soldier backed him off. "_Shut up_ Dei-Long! The kid deserves it—_fucking_ traitor."

"Please, save your bullets for something else." said the other soldier, Dei-Long.

The way Dei-Long talked made Syaoran think that he was scared of his comrade, or as if he was against everything that was happening. His voice shook immensely but his movements were slow and not as aggressive as the other Chinese soldiers.

As the aggressive soldier held his rifle straight up and took his eyes off them, he said, "Get the _fuck_ off my ship." and started directing others out.

When Syaoran gave in to the man's weight, Touya came to the other side and assisted him by throwing the man's arm around his shoulder. The two helped one another walk out onto a boarding bridge where they saw groups of scared people sitting in small clusters with soldiers surrounding them.

"I thought we agreed to _not_ do anything that would get us killed." Touya said.

"By _us_ I thought you meant everybody on the ship, and look at this, someone _isn't_ dead." replied Syaoran.

"I'm sorry." Said the man

"Don't be." Syaoran said.

When they reached the bottom, they let the man loose and he reunited himself with a number of people. Sakura rushed to throw her arms around Syaoran and squeezed him tightly. When she pushed back, she swung a hand hard across Syaoran's face.

"If I ever see another gun pointed at you again, I swear I'm going to kill myself." She said.

Syaoran sighed. "I'm sorry."

Sakura pulled his collar down until their foreheads met. She looked deep into Syaoran's eyes, glad to see that he wasn't hurt in any way attempting to help the poor soul. She moved in her head, attempting to give Syaoran a kiss on the lips, but as she saw that he didn't move forward in reaction to her she moved back. "What's wrong?"

Syaoran slowly wrapped his arms around her neck and pulled her in tight. "I'm scared." His breath vibrated like he was stunned to see a horrid phenomenon. His skin felt cold against her skin, and sweat leaked from his chin onto the top of her hair. Looking past Sakura, Syaoran saw the eyes of Touya staring blankly and yet so solemnly at him. Touya blinked, then walked towards another group in hope of service to help.

"Syaoran-kun, don't be scared." Sakura said. "Remember, I share your pain; if you're scared, then that makes me scared."

Syaoran forced a smile. "You really are stronger than me."

When the two released, Sakura whirled her head around. She peered through crowds with families, all teary and bled with fear. For a moment, she glared in one direction, then looked up at Syaoran. "Where's Tomoyo-chan."

Shaking his head Syaoran said, "I don't know, but I'm sure she's safe—she's a smart girl."

"I hope so."

When the crowd shifted from a loud commotion to a sudden silence, Syaoran turned around and saw Feng and Hoang standing next to each other on a short wooden podium. Unlike before, everyone seemed to know what the drill was: shut up so no one else died.

Hoang laughed as if he was surprised at the silence but at the same time felt glory in him to have such power towards his captives. Feng only stood by him with a straight face, not making a noise or blinking.

"I'm glad you're all quiet!" Hoang shouted, his voice boomed like demons have just wrecked havoc upon the world and all everyone heard was the devil crying out battlecries. "Just in case you're all wondering where you are, I'll give you this much: China!"

Syaoran glowered, _damn_ he thought to himself.

"Where you're all going will be explained soon enough . . . sort of; but let's keep this going as smoothly as it is alright? I really don't want anyone else to get hurt."

As he left, the two soldiers started to yell out commands. The commands were to put everyone in metal handcuffs. Attached to those handcuffs were thick ropes that would attack the handcuffs around a person's waist, thus forcing everyone to walk in straight lines.

Though it took almost twenty minute to get everyone from the town of Tomoeda into cuffs and strings, it worked out as pleasantly as the Chinese wanted it; fast and painless to them as they were painful to others.

Syaoran was cuffed and behind Touya. Wei and Sakura were brought over to a different line which they were then reunited with Tomoyo who almost cried her heart out to see that everyone still alive and well.

From where he stood, Syaoran couldn't see how many lines there were, but it wasn't difficult for anyone to see how long they were. Tomoeda was a small luxurious and isolated down, but each line, considering Tomoeda's population, would be able to wrap around an average house almost fifteen times. At least that was what Syaoran had estimated.

After rifles fired into the air, Syaoran noticed the line started to move forward as he felt the person in front of him tug. They were moving. Thoughts traveled through his mind as of where they were going. He looked at Sakura's line but they had already moved ahead. Syaoran tried to search for her, but couldn't.

As another tug forced him forward, he stood his attention at his situation; hands cuffed and walking somewhere in the unknown.

**. : The Echo of Cries and Demons : .**

When the sun rose over the heads of Japanese captives, it quickly sunk back down to the opposite end of the mountains that they had walked over. Syaoran was forced to smell the air of swift night once again. It was only every three hours when they were given an opportunity to take a break. But the opportunity to rest was short, a mere ten minutes after walking for hours.

Syaoran's legs had gotten numb. Though the cool breeze of the nights wind felt like heaven upon his skin, his legs were about to give in. Looking at the others who were just like him, they were none the different.

Off to the side, Sakura's line walked just as slow, but Syaoran still couldn't find her, nor Wei and Tomoyo. A man collapsed behind Syaoran, forcing his weak legs to fall to the ground. There line stopped. Touya looked back to see the matter and helped Syaoran back up to his feet with his cuffed hands.

"Are you alright?" Syaoran asked the man. He coughed with fierce as if he wanted to get something out of his stomach. The coughs were dry and he inhaled with a loud wheeze. "Please get up." Syaoran urged. The people behind him did the same.

"I—I can't go any—'ore."

Just as he finished, a Chinese soldier came up to him with a rifle in hand. "What's the matter here?" he said.

"He can't walk, we have to rest." said Syaoran.

"Shut up kid!" the soldier pointed his rifle at Syaoran; a warning.

The solider looked down with a fake face. He looked as if he cared, but Syaoran knew that it was all just an act. Soon, the soldier kicked the man to his side, forcing Syaoran and the man behind him tilt to the ground. Syaoran opened his mouth to shout but the soldier began talking. To only make matters worse for the poor unfortunate soul, he spoke in Chinese, but Syaoran knew exactly what he said.

"Get up you weak! Get up, get up!"

After the man asked to be let go, the soldier only laughed and continued to speak more of his own tongue.

"Do you really want me to let you go? Let you go of all of this?" the hopeless captive only stood as he knew nothing of what the soldier had said to him. "Your wish is my command."

As blood splattered quickly onto his face like water being splashed from someone jumping into a pool, a loud echo screeched the night skies. Syaoran only stood with his hands cuffed as the Chinese soldier had done the unthinkable. Now the man who couldn't walk any longer couldn't even crawl; his head bounced against the hard cold sand. The blood of his brains rivered down from the bullet hole he was given.

Several people behind the dead body screamed in an echoic horror. The people in front of the dead body tugged and wanted to continue so that they too wouldn't meet the same feet. But with the body lying there unable to move, the line didn't go anywhere.

The soldier smiled, then looked at Syaoran whose face was shocked and at the same time giving the soldier a high level of threat. The soldier pointed the barrel of his rifle point blank at his face and held the hand on the trigger.

"What's going on?" another soldier came running by.

"Nothing Dei-Long," replied the soldier. "Just help me get this body out of these chains so that we can keep going."

After removing the dead man from the line, everyone, including Syaoran, continued there long walk as if nothing had ever happened. Behind Syaoran was now a new person and a different presence. It was about another half hour of walking before they were given yet another short break.

The majority of the people sat down to rest their feet. Those who didn't dare to show fear and weakness by sitting down were forced to due to the pulls of others.

Looking about their location, Syaoran could see in a long distance that there were trees just past a certain point of a sandy mountain. The peeks of each tree stuck up just tall enough for Syaoran to describe it: they were trees that cramped together, not giving any space for anyone to walk through. Not only that, but they were as tall as a ten story building, a perfect place for ambushes if there were ever to be one.

Mind wandering closer to him, they were in a small dessert. From the amount of time they walked, it would seem to be a large one, but from the distance they covered, it was nothing.

"I thought I told you to do anything that'll get yourself killed." Touya exclaimed.

Syaoran shook his head in dismay at the fact that he wasn't killed. "Well I'm alive aren't I?" said Syaoran, then added, "Tell that to me when I'm dead."

Touya groaned and scuffed his head. "I'm sorry . . . I just—" he stuttered for a moment and took a deep breath. "I just don't want anything to happen to you."

The two gave an odd uncomforting stare. "What do you mean?" asked Syaoran.

"Well of course, I don't want anything to happen to anyone, but you especially." Touya looked up at the night skies and stalled for his search of words. Syaoran felt just as uncomfortable as he did. The two had never shared any touching feelings—not even close to one. "Listen, I know what you and my little sister are up to. I know that you two are dating and . . . in love."

Syaoran scratched his head and gulped. "I guess it was kind of obvious."

"I don't know how long you two've been at it, but I can tell that she's the happiest when with you. You make her the happiest girl in the world, and it gives me and my father joy to see that. I'm happy to see that she's madly in love to be with someone like you."

"So . . . you accept us being together?" asked Syaoran.

Touya didn't say a word. For almost a minute, he stood staring nowhere but at the sandy hills in front of them that stretched for miles. "I've known you for a long time." He started. "I don't want to, but I know I can trust you to keep her safe and bring her back home . . . more than I can trust myself."

His tone was mellow but low and filled with a certain fear that Syaoran couldn't decipher. Before Syaoran could say anything to him, Touya got up to his feet and said, "Take care of her."

Their eyes met; his serious while Syaoran's confused and strained. "Why are you talking like—"

Before he finished, metal cuffs fell in front of him. His eyes narrowed down to Touya's freed arms. He used one hand to rub areas where the cuffs were and then repeated it to the other.

Without even believing what had just happened—that Touya was able to pick his own cuffs—Syaoran watched as Touya ran in the opposite direction with an amazing amount of speed. Through sand and a whole days worth of agonizing walking, he was still able to fully sprint.

A commotion echoed throughout. And soon, the voices of Chinese soldiers yelled, "A runaway!"

When three soldiers passed Syaoran in chase of Touya, he was already a hundred to hundred and fifty yards away from the end of the line. Shots were fired, but at the distance, they missed. Even though the distance was much too far for their rifles to reach, they continued shooting.

A fourth soldier came running up, but this time, he had an ACOG Scope in place if his weapons iron sights. He took a kneel on the sandy ground and steadied.

Aimed . . .

Fired . . .

For a moment, Things seemed to have frozen because no one moved; not the soldiers, not the people behind Syaoran, not even himself. Only a second later, Syaoran could see Touya, almost two hundred yards away, fall to the ground just before a tall sandy mountain.

His eyes were in shock. He had hoped that Touya would be able to escape and get help. He couldn't believe that the low standard attach-on scope was enough.

"T—Touya!" Syaoran cried out. He could feel a tear starting to fall down from the bottom of his left eye.

"Good riddance." said the soldier who had shot him.

With a sigh, the ACOG soldier started to make his back to the front of the line. The other three soldiers, along with Dei-Long, followed him closely.

As he passed, Syaoran acted in frustration and anger and charged in for a tackle. But the chains that connected him to the others forced him to fall back hard.

"Little mad now are we not?" the soldier said. He stopped right at the base of Syaoran and held his ACOG rifle in one hand. "Was that a friend of yours? If he was smart, he'd be alive."

"You—You demon!" Syaoran cried.

"Shit!" the soldier said in a playful tone. "You must be that kid everyone's been talking about; annoying little Chinese dude! I do wonder why you're in here with the japs ya know?" He struck muzzle of the rifle into the cheek of Syaoran and pushed his head to the ground. "Maybe I should just kill you to save trouble for everyone."

"Song, save your bullets."

The voice came from Dei-Long.

"Why should I?" said Song. "He gave Feng trouble, why shouldn't I do it?"

"Their rest is over and we're almost _there_ . We'll need all we can."

Song smiled. "We won't miss one . . . especially _just_ a kid." He pulled the trigger.

Syaoran closed his eyes and waited for the sound of the bullet to his skull. But the only sound her heard was the sound of a pulled trigger. He reopened his eyes to see Song cursing at his own weapon.

"What a lucky kid." He said. "What a lucky _fucking_ kid! _Fucking_ Buddha I just had to fun out of ammo!"

"Good." said Dei-Long. "That's one more person we can use. Now please, let's get going."

As the two left past Syaoran, Song still cursing at himself and his weapon, the other two soldiers reconnected Syaoran's chains to a new person in front of him. Sweats of fear dripped from his forehead to his cheeks. He thought about what had just happened to him . . . no . . . what could have happened to him. The soldier didn't hold back, he pulled the trigger. One more bullet in the rifle and Syaoran would have died.

It wasn't the image of his dead body that ran through his mind, but more so the image of Sakura being alone without her father, without her brother, and without him. Her loneliness, her sorrow, and his broken promise to get married, Syaoran searched for alternative routes that she could have taken, but it all seemed too unrealistic. Who just forgets everything when so much has already happened?

**. : The Echo of Cries and Demons : .**

When they reached a small skinny path to a small village entrance, the soldiers had uncuffed everyone, but they stood on guard with rifles pointing, aiming, ready to shoot.

The small dessert was behind them now. The ground changed from hard sand to mushy mud. The village was surrounded by wooden spiked fences that were set up around its perimeters. Syaoran could see that farmers still worked their shift even though it was far past midnight and the air was as cold as it could get.

The lines turned into clusters once again as everyone looked for their loved ones. Syaoran did the same. He searched and he searched, but only saw mother and son hugging one another and wife and husband giving each other kisses.

"Syaoran-kun!" Sakura's high pitched voice called out for him. Syaoran twirled around, trying to follow her voice through the crowd, but found it difficult as everybody moved and shifted. "Syaoran-kun!" he heard again.

Finally, he found her squeezing through two couples. She ran as fast as her weary legs could take her and threw her arms around his neck. The two fell to their knees and shared a tight and reprieving hug.

Sakura moved back, but with her arms still loosely around his neck. She smiled at the fact that he was safe. "Where's Onii-chan?"

It was the one thing Syaoran wanted to avoid. He tried his best to keep a straight face, but it soon glowered. He stared at her emerald eyes, trying to say something, but it was too late, she already knew the answer.

Sakura shook her head vigorously as tears started to stream down her eyes. "No, no" she said. "Where is he? Where's Onii-chan!" Syaoran didn't answer. "Where is he? Where is he? Where's Onii-chan! Where's Touya! Where is he Syaoran-kun! Where, where, _where!_ " she smashed her head hard against his chest, still sobbing.

Syaoran didn't know how he wanted to react. He knew that he couldn't lie, but at the same time, he wanted to lie just to make her calm down.

"_Where is heee!_ " Syaoran could feel her drool on his shirt. Her whimpering cries were of desperation. Her embrace on him were of madness and temptation, her feelings were of those of a million sins.

Embracing her as tightly as he possibly could, Syaoran only waited as she poured even more tears onto his shirt.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Sakura-chan I'm _sorry!_ "

* * *

This chapter and the next I was planning on writing  
were suppose to be in one whole chapter.  
But as I've said because it has been a long time  
since the last update  
and because of e-mails  
I've posted this chapter a bit shorter than usual  
but please review! I surely hope you enjoyed.


	4. Cage Fight

**Summary:** This is a story of two teens who are madly in love and are just trying to survive hard times as a war between China and Japan rages. One night, after the celebration of Kinomoto Sakura's sixteenth birthday, Chinese Soldiers attack the town of Tomoeda and takes everyone hostage; those who didn't listen or tried to rebel were shot and killed. Taken across sea to an unknown region of China, Sakura and Syaoran are separated and are treated as slaves while being forced to work on farms and factories. Now, it becomes not only just a fight for survival, but also a fight to hopefully be reunited with one another and bring an end to a war that has already gone too far. Now, everything they do and everywhere they go, all they see and hear are the echoes of cries and demons.

**a/n:** Yes! Finally an update! Haha! Oh, and thank you for all reading my oneshot "I Talk of This Because..." If anyone can guess what anime gave me that idea, I will give you so much props, haha! Well, you can expect a weekly update of this story from now on because SCHOOL IS OUT! SUMMER FTW!

Aha and surprisingly, _**VERY**_ surprisingly actually, a few of you have added me as a friend on my Myspace. Thank you so much! It's always nice to have friends. Well, if anyone's interested on adding me (if you have a Myspace), just go to my profile and click on my "Homepage". it should lead you straight to my Myspace profile. But it's a private profile, so you'll have to add me first if you want to see my profile. Just simply say "Fanfiction" or something like that on the message bar so I know who you are. I'm a regular user so you'll see me online often.

**Genre:** Romance, Drama, War, Tragedy**  
Disclaimer:** I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura in any way.**  
POV:** Third**  
Rating:** _**M**_ (for sexual—and possible nudity—description, crude humor, blood and violence, and war) That "M" is bolded, italic, and underlined for a reason, so take that and make sure you understand that when I say this story is "M", it is a big "M". (Especially as the story progresses)  
**Update:** This story WILL update weekly.

**The Echo of Cries and Demons**  
By: Shinigami 42-42-564  
…**Chapter Four…**  
"Cage Fight"

They locked them up in a cage. Syaoran thought that they could have done better than just that. He felt shame in his culture. They locked them up in a cage made of bamboo—Chinese bamboo. He flicked the bamboo with a finger; _Chinese bamboo_, he thought. They were bamboo . . . but he had underestimated its strength. The bamboo was just as hard as steel itself. It took almost five hundred pounds of force to break one in half.

They were in a village. It was a small village and from what Syaoran was able to predict, it was going to be a short stay only, for both the captives and the soldiers. But the village was anomalous; there were no children around to play around a camp fire, no mother to weave or do laundry, there weren't any men to slaughter pigs or chicken. The only human life that existed were the soldiers and they themselves—the captives from Tomoeda.

There were still straw houses. There were still bamboo houses. There were still clay and mud houses. Syaoran was surprised to see that there were no brick or wooden houses. _Rural side?_ He thought. As he looked around from inside the bamboo cage, some of the houses were burnt or burned to the ground, the remains of those houses stood out like a thin black cross.

Before Syaoran was able to realize that he was awake, a Chinese soldier had already taken two buckets of cold water and plastered it over everyone within his cage. "Wake _up_!" the soldier yelled.

Shaking his head, one: to be fully awake and two: to dry his hair and get water out of his face, Syaoran felt a bright burst of sun blind him. It took minutes for him to adjust, but when he did, he saw about fifteen more men and women around him; all sitting on their own sides of the bamboo cage. To his side was Sakura, just waking up from the cold water.

The soldier eyed Sakura closely. With a straight irritated looking face, he walked to her side of the cage and kicked it hard. Sakura yelped as the tip of the soldier's boot managed to squeeze its way through the small opening that bamboo gave. Seeing this, Syaoran wrapped his arm around Sakura and moved away from the sides.

"I said wake up!" the soldier shouted. "all of you!"

With that last shout, everyone was wide awake, including Sakura. She felt the comfort of Syaoran's arms around her and burrowed her face into his chest, still keeping a close eye on the soldier.

As the soldier smiled, a name slowly reached Syaoran's mind. He knew the soldier, he knew his name, but as he tried to think, the name only appeared to him slower and slower. Finally, he remembered.

"Song . . ." murmured Syaoran.

Song smiled as if congratulating Syaoran for remembering him. The two shared a glare; Syaoran felt the temptation to attack song because he didn't hold a rifle in his hand, but he would have to figure out how to get out of the cage he was in.

As another soldier, a different one from what Syaoran has seen, came next to Song, Song circled the bamboo cage and finally stopped after a lap around.

"Nothing funny!" shouted Song. "I'm going to open this cage now, and all of you are to walk straight over there!" he pointed to a burned down house with three soldiers standing around. One wore the same as the Captain, Feng, wore, and the other, Syaoran could easily identify, was Dei-Long.

When he opened the bamboo cage, it opened upward to Syaoran's amazement. It wasn't quite an industrial thing, but Syaoran was still amazed at how creative they had made the cage.

One man stepped up and exited the cage. Song gave him a solemn stare as if the man would try something stupid—something selfish. Syaoran wondered if the Chinese soldier would ever learn that everyone else already has learned their lesson.

"Come on," said Song. This time he used a surprisingly calmer voice. "Keep on moving." As three more people exited, Syaoran moved up, but was pulled down by Sakura.

"We'll go together." He whispered to her. "C'mon."

When they got up, Syaoran held Sakura's hand tightly. He made sure that she was lose and behind him. If anything were to happen to them, Syaoran would be the first to take the blow.

"Stay quiet!" Feng shouted as they gathered in front of him. Syaoran and Sakura moved their way towards the middle of the group. They did it for several reasons, but the important was to be concealed. "I have a little work for all of you to do."

A commotion started to ease out throughout the group. Soon, a man yelled, "We're not your slaves!"

Feng only cried out a laugh. "I never said you were."

He used the gun trick: pointing the muzzle of every rifle into the faces of everyone who wanted to retaliate. Within the next hour, he managed to get every single captive either harvesting rice or planting off stemmed vegetables into muddy ponds of water that reached nearly up to the knees.

Syaoran was put into the pond fields, planting. But as he shoved stems into the dirt at the bottom of the pond, he couldn't help but to think of Sakura, who was taken away into picking rice. The longer Syaoran thought, the more he was able to come up with an assumption; an assumption that would make no difference how he acted, but how he thought. They weren't in the village because it was their stay area, it wasn't anywhere near it. It was only to give the soldiers a rest. The _chores_ they were given were for the soldiers own benefit. Rice, planting, cotton, it was all there.

The sun was hot. One of the warmest days he had ever felt. He thought that, being around water, would relinquish the feeling of the sun beating down onto the back of his neck, but the sun was too strong. Already, if he would just touch his neck, he could feel the sunburn left by the sun's rays.

Wiping sweats off of his forehead, Syaoran saw Dei-Long holding his rifle in hand standing guard only ten feet in front of him. He looked sturdy, eyes moving left and right slowly, scanning the workers around him. Though from the looks of it, his grip and handle on his rifle were loose; if Syaoran wanted to tackled Dei-Long, the rifle would for sure drop.

Suddenly, he yawned. All of Syaoran's assumptions on Dei-Long quickly vanished. He saw that his body swerved in place, a sign of a weary soldier.

"D—Dei-Long." Syaoran started.

Dei-Long stared with a few blinks, then shook his head as if to snap himself awake. "What do you want?" he said.

Syaoran stuttered. He didn't quite exactly know why he called out his name or even what made him do so. The two exchanged glares for a moment, then Syaoran ended it with a quick shake of the head and resumed his slave duties.

"Wait." said Dei-Long.

Just as Syaoran was about to drop another stem into the water, he stretched back up, surprised to hear Dei-Long tell him to _wait_.

"What's your name?"

Syaoran gave him a curious and solemn look. "Li." He said.

"Li?" Dei-Long repeated. "Mind if I take you in for some tea?"

Syaoran raised his nose in the air, being cautious at his offer. Slowly, he made his way to Dei-Long where he then lead Syaoran into a small hay house—it was probably the only house that didn't look like it was burned.

Dei-Long offered a seat and gave Syaoran a small cup of newly brewed tea.

"You know—"

**. : The Echo of Cries and Demons : .**

After more than twelve hours of labor, Sakura was about to reach her breaking point. Her back was sore, her fingers bruised, and her feet felt as if blisters grew on her blisters. She already had her mental breakdown—practically screaming at herself and worrying about Syaoran. Inside a hostile community, she didn't feel protected, didn't feel safe unless she were in his arms. But for some reason, she wasn't scared. Feeling unprotected, but at the same time unafraid. It only meant to her that Syaoran was not afraid as well.

"Get back to your cage!" she was ordered to do and she wasn't going to rebel against it.

She walked alone—almost. Several other captives walked around her, but kept a certain amount of distances away from her as well as everyone else. It was without purpose; the weary minds even had trouble navigating themselves to their own bamboo cage, soldiers had to walk along the group's perimeter just to lead and make sure no one tried to escape.

"Escapee!"

Sakura quickly covered her ears tightly with her hands and closed her eyes. It was something she should have gotten used to already. But with blood and loss, it just didn't seem like it would ever happen.

As bullets fired, she hummed to herself, trying to hinder all noises. It was already the fourth time she was forced to have bullets fire around her due to someone trying to escape. She wasn't sure if they survived or not, but she was sure that their odds were very slim. _When will they stop_?

With eyes shut and hands over ears, she continued to walk, trusting her instincts to carry her off towards her cage.

When she felt that the firing was over, she opened her eyes and dropped her arms to the side, forcing herself not to look back. Sakura could already feel the cold feeling of blood around her—a feeling of discomfort, and grueling aura of sorrow.

Her peripheral vision caught the sight of Syaoran walking in between houses weakly towards the same direction, his legs limped like most of everyone and his cloths were drizzling wet.

"Syaoran-kun!" she used what little energy she had left and moved her fastest to the one she loved. She softly threw herself into her arms, ignoring his damp cloths, but making sure his weak body didn't fall to the ground. "Are you okay?"

Weakly, he nodded. "I am. And you?"

"I am now." she tip-toed and gave him a peck on the lips. "What happened to you?"

"I fell in a pond." he laughed, but Sakura didn't find it the same. "Come on, let's go."

After they made their way back to their bamboo cage, the same soldier, Song, shut the cage door on them. Syaoran and Sakura scurried into the side they were once at and locked themselves in each other's arms.

"Sleep well dipshits!" Song exclaimed. "We'll be on another long-ass walk tomorrow." he left.

Hours have passed and the sun now started to set. A cool easy wind came from one direction and cooled the captives inside the cage, giving them their very first true feeling of comfort. Together, Syaoran and Sakura slept peacefully, as well did most of the other captives within their cage.

But, snickering voices woke Syaoran up. He looked behind him through the bamboo cell bars to see which soldier was making irritating chatters. Around them he only saw two soldiers, both on opposite ends of the cage; in order for them to communicate, they would have to yell, so the two were quickly discarded from Syaoran's mind as suspects.

Sakura twitched in his arms. Syaoran repositioned himself so that she was in a more comfortable position, then alerted his attention as the bickering continued.

When he found the gossip, he was amazingly surprised to see that it was directly across from him. Two men held a hand in front of their mouths and whispered into each other's ears. One of them stared at Syaoran, then brought his ear closer as the other murmured. Moments later, the same man gave Syaoran an angry glare as if he would soon attack.

"—be one of them." Syaoran managed to heed.

As a third man joined in their enigmatic conversation, the other two man suddenly stood their attentions towards Syaoran, who was now alarmed at their curious faces.

"You there—" one of the man said, directing his voice to Syaoran. "—you looking at what?"

"N—nothing." Syaoran muttered. "Sor—"

"Don't play games with us!" the other yelled in a hushed voice—silent enough to not alert the guards.

Syaoran flinched at his words. "I beg . . . your pardon?"

The first man rose to his feet, fists clenched to his side. "You're one of _them_! Aren't you?"

"What?" Syaoran exclaimed is disbelief. "Of course not!"

"Don't bullshit with me, kid." the man yelled. "I saw you walking into that hut with one of the soldiers—what are you people planning?"

"He's a spy!" the second men yelled in his abet.

Syaoran shook his head in disbelief of what he was hearing. "I wasn't planning anything—and I'm not a spy!"

Sakura woke up, along with the other captives within their cage; all wondering what on earth was going on.

"What do you take us for?" the second man yelled.

"As of right now, I take you all for captives being scared out of their mind!" Syaoran answered with haste.

"So, you're not scared eh? It's because these Chinese soldier's happen to be your friend, right?"

"I'm assuming that you are saying when that soldier took you in, it was just to rest your sore little feet?"

The man standing made his way to the center of the cage. Defensively, Syaoran let go of Sakura and rushed to his feet, standing in front of her.

Just as the last inch of sun finally set, the clouds were hastily brought in over their heads. Seconds later, it started to rain upon them.

"Look! I'm in just as much deep of a shit as you all are in okay? I'm not any better or any worst than any of you!"

"Damn Chinese freak, quit your lying!"

"I'm not!" Syaoran shot back.

"Hey!" one of the soldiers yelled. "This rain's bad enough, I don't want to be annoyed even more."

Syaoran and the man stared at the soldier for a moment, then went back to glaring at each other. Syaoran took a step forward, but felt Sakura wrapping her arms around his stomach and pulling him back.

"Tell me this kid: why did that soldier bring you in that hut?" the man asked.

"I—" As a rain pelted Syaoran in the eye, he twitched. But when he recovered, he found the answers he wanted to say lost. He didn't know how to answer, because he himself didn't even understand why he was brought there.

"Oh, I should fuck you up right now, you spy!" the man held up a fist and walked towards Syaoran. "You see that everyone? They shoved him in here so that he can listen to our supposed _plans of escape_ then tattle on us and get us all killed!"

Just before he was about to swing forward, Sakura went in front of Syaoran in his defense and shielded him.

"Please don't!" she yelled. "Please, Syaoran-kun has nothing to do with _them_, please don't hurt him!"

The man scoffed and walked back to the center. "You're lucky that fowl bitch is there to protect you."

"What did you call her?" snapped Syaoran, enraged. "Take it back!"

"I said—"

Before the man was able to finish, Syaoran had already shifted Sakura aside and tackle the man to the muddy floor caused by the rain. He threw several fists at the man's face, but because he was older and ultimately stronger, his punches seemed to have had little effect. The man easily kicked Syaoran off and onto his side of the cage, where the other men pushed him back into the middle. Syaoran was greeted in his return with a hard knuckle to the jaw.

"_Kyah_!" was what came out of Sakura's mouth as she screamed for Syaoran. "Please stop it!" She pleaded for Syaoran's life.

The blow would seem to have knocked Syaoran out, but the man didn't stop there. He threw the weakened Syaoran against the bamboo caged wall and began smashing his head against the bars. Syaoran tasted the acid of the rain mixing in with blood from his mouth as all he was able to do was swallow.

The second man came in and helped shove Syaoran's face into the pool of mud that formed as the rain continued to downpour. Then, whistles blew and two soldiers opened the gate and rushed in. They broke up the brutal attack, but the man continued to crawl on Syaoran.

"Stop it!" one of the soldiers yelled and rammed the butt of his rifle onto the head of the man. As for the second guy, he was held at gunpoint by the other soldier.

The first soldier continued to beat the butt of his rifle into the man's skull, merely because he kept getting up, but after the sixth blow, he finally fell unconscious. Three more soldiers came up and looked at the mayhem that was created. The three soldiers carried the unconscious man out of the cage and disappeared into the rain in the far distance. The other man, who was held at gunpoint, was escorted out of the cage.

The remaining soldier turned and watched as Syaoran wriggled in the mud. With a furious face, he gave Syaoran a boot to the stomach and yelled, "Start a fight again, and you'll be sure to die next time!" then left, closing the cage behind him.

Sakura urgently crawled to the almost-dying Syaoran. Blood washed away from the side of his mouth as the rain continued to pelt. Sakura wanted to slap him, wanted to punish him because of what he had started—what he had gotten himself into, but with his physical condition, she could only cry.

"_Baka_!" she bellowed. "Why'd you do it? You didn't have to! Syaoran-Ku—you're so stupid! What did Onii-chan say earlier? _Don't do anything that'll get yourself killed_! Don't make the same mistake _he_ did! You're stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, _stupid_!" She cried, tears mixing in with the rain, holding in her arms what seemed like a corpse more than a living body.

Her cries, her voice, her thoughts; it all echoed off into the sobbing night sky itself.

**. : The Echo of Cries and Demons : .**

When Syaoran woke up, he felt the most lopsided headache he has ever had. The pain all shifted to one side, and then after he blinked, it shifted to the other. It felt almost unbearable for him. As he tried opening his mouth, pain shot through the side. He reached to feel what it was and found that one side had been cut. The only thing he remembered was turning around and being clobbered by a fist, then hearing the screaming of Sakura.

_Sakura_!

He panicked, but found her laying on top of him, arms around his chest and head resting close to his chin. Looking across the cage, he noticed that the two men who argued with him were now gone; where they went, Syaoran wondered.

"Wake up!" he heard a soldier yell. It was none other than Song himself.

Sakura jolted up and rubbed her eyes with both hands.

"Sakura-chan." said Syaoran, seeing her wake.

After their eyes met, she gasped and quickly swung a palm across his face. "You _stupid_—" she cried, then trailed off.

Syaoran felt the side of his cheek and said, "I guess I deserved that." Sakura agreed with a nod.

"I don't want to lose you too." she whispered.

"Get up!" Song yelled, this time extending _up_ to his favor. The rest of the cage got up after the second call, then scrambled to their feet. After the cage was opened, the captives slowly walked out. "Now because it's a hassle, and because you guys have been good—well, the ones who didn't run away that is—Feng has decided to keep you off your cuffs and trust that you'll walk the way we want you to."

After directions, the rest of the captives, along with Syaoran's group made their way across the village and towards the opposite end of when they first came in. They weren't single filed as before, but with guards the amount dead due to the attempt of escaping, the soldiers were easily able to set up a perimeter around everyone.

This allowed Syaoran and Sakura to hold hands during the next long walk. They were off to the side of the group, where three soldiers were easily visible. One of them happened to be the one Syaoran feared most; Song.

"You know kid," he started, walking with rifle in hand as always. "You're starting to become quite a familiar face with us soldiers."

Syaoran switched hands with Sakura so she was more on the inside; more secured and safe. "I'm glad I can be so infamous."

"We just can't seem to go a day without talking to you, or about you."

"I am also glad that I can be of some sort of entertainment for you soldiers." said Syaoran, sarcasm in his voice.

Song laughed as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. Then with a quick exhale, he said, "Oh yeah . . . but I doubt you'd be able to entertain the guys as much as _her_."

Syaoran raised his brow, "What—"

"Soldiers!" Song yelled. He then sped up, moving towards the front of the group. "_Part_!"

"What?" Syaoran looked ahead of the group.

At the very front, the trail they walked up started to split into two. Instead of choosing one path, the soldiers, as well as the captives, began to split evenly into both routes. But, as Syaoran examined the road ahead of them even closer, he could see that it wasn't just a random chosen group that split, but it was men's one way and women the other.

Urgently, Syaoran turned to Sakura, "Whatever you do, don't let go of my hand, you got it?" he said.

"Why?" Sakura panicked, seeing a solemn expression on Syaoran's face. "What's happening?"

"Promise me that you won't let go!"

Sakura nodded and held on tighter to Syaoran's hand.

When they reached the junction, women and children started to cry. Some had to be pried from their loved ones, others were willingly letting go, but sobbing overwhelmingly. As Syaoran and Sakura reached, they stood still, neither going on either of the paths.

"Get it moving!" one of the soldiers yelled. He pulled on Syaoran, trying to break him apart from Sakura, but he held on tight. "Don't fight it!"

Another soldier came to help release them from their grip. He pulled on their hands as the other pulled Syaoran from his stomach.

"Don't let go!" Syaoran yelled. "Whatever you do, Sakura-chan, don't let go!" Sakura nodded and tried to keep the tightest grip on his hand.

The soldier behind Syaoran quickly let go, but only to jam the butt of his rifle into his skull. Syaoran pushed forward and tried to fight it off, but still held onto Sakura's hand.

"Syaoran-kun!" Sakura yelled, seeing the one she loved being beat right in front of her again.

"Don't let go—" the soldier smashed the butt into his skull again, but with strong will, he kept a grip on Sakura's hand. After the third beat from the rifle, he could feel Sakura's hand slipping away from him. He looked up, and to his escalating fear, saw Sakura slowly shaking her head. "Don't you dare." he warned.

Sakura opened her hand, allowing the soldier to easily pull the two apart. "I'll be okay." she said. "I'll be okay."

"No! Don't!" The soldier shoved the two into their separate routes. Syaoran fought back, pushing the soldiers aside an trying to make his way pass the oncoming men, but as the sound of a rifle went off, Syaoran instantly felt a scratch on his upper arm. He fell slowly to the ground, but got back up as Sakura only walked farther away from him. A soldier grabbed him by his wounded arm and he cried out in pain.

"Syaoran-kun!" he heard Sakura yell. He weakly searched for her, and found her, almost out of site. "Don't be stupid!" he managed to hear.

"Yeah." the soldier holding him agreed. "Listen to her!"

Syaoran's focus was not towards the soldier, so he heard nothing of what he said. He managed to shake the soldier loose once again and take a few steps towards Sakura's path.

"I'm coming back for you!" he yelled, hoping that his voice would reach her. "You hear me? I'm coming back for you! I'm not gonna let them hurt you, okay! Sakura-cha—"

* * *

If there's a mistake somewhere--grammer, spelling--I'll get to it later before posting my next chapter. I only skimmed through it so I'm sure I missed something somewhere. But yeah, send me a review; I know it's been a long time, but I'd like you to give me your thoughts so far. This is where I start to put the wonders in this story.


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